When Keir Starmer launched the Labour local election campaign back in April in Wales, he said that if you want to see what would happen to the UK if Labour got in to Downing Street, just look atWales and what do we see going on in Wales? For starters, research by Loughborough University this week told us that, everywhere else in the UK, child poverty is on a downward trend but in Wales, child poverty is rising.
The failure of Labour’s 23 years in power in Wales is being borne by our youngest and mostvulnerable.Here in Wales, 70,000 people are waiting more than two years for NHS treatment. In a modern, wealthy nation, this is a scandal and I can’t forget to mention the bizarre nanny-statism of Labour, who want to ban smoking and vaping outdoors, and who have now decreed that the speed limit in Wales should be 20mph.We cannot risk this sort of poverty of ambition and mis-directed priorities entering Number 10.With Boris at the helm, we won a stonking majority back in 2019. I am proud that, under his stewardship, we put Jeremy Corbyn back in his box, got Brexit done, got the jabs in arms to open up the country, and led the way on support for Ukraine.
READ MORE: Live updates as extreme heatwave hits UK
Boris reached into areas that Conservatives had not appealed to for decades, if ever at all, in Wales and the north of England. The agenda of levelling up and shared prosperity spoke to people across the political divide – hope, opportunity and aspiration in action but now we have to pick the ball up from the ruck and keep running.
What I want to say to the new Prime Minister, whoever that may be, is that they need to be ambitious, bold and brave for our great country, and get us out of this perpetual Mexican standoff. We need to focus, not on ourselves, but on the cost of living pressures people are facing. We’ve made a fantastic start with the various support measures, now totalling nearly £40 billion, for Welsh and UK households. Now, we need to push on, get inflation under control and keep on delivering.
If we cannot provide solutions, it is Labour who will benefit, and the rest of the UK will be subjected to the mismanagement of public services, the wokery, and the lack of hope that people in Wales have had to live with under Labour’s rule and we need to show people that government is on their side in the face of the cold corporatism that charges them £100 to give their car a drink and cancels their flight when they’re on the tarmac after they’ve worked so hard for their holiday. I also want to say to the new Prime Minister that they need to be a minister for the Union, not just for South East England.
In the face of a separatist government in Scotland desperate to tear apart the UK, and a government in Cardiff Bay all too keen to indulge in separatism, we need a Prime Minister that can remind people across the UK how the Union not just works for them, but benefits them and their families. From a Welsh perspective, we can do that by delivering rail investment consequentials to Network Rail to turbocharge a rail revolution for Wales.
Our transport infrastructure here in Wales is creaking, and to make matters infinitely worse, Labour have banned road building here and sent a message to investors and job creators that says we are closed for business.
Delivering significant rail improvement will also be the perfect way of showing that, while Labour is holding Wales back, the Conservatives are unleashing Wales’ potential. Secondly, it must be made clear that, under a Conservative government, no further powers will be devolved to Cardiff Bay. Welsh Government have the tools to fix our waiting lists and our creaking public services already.
Finally, we need to make Saint David’s Day a bank holiday. It’s a no brainer.
Irrespective of how this contest ends, as Conservatives we can be proud of the diversity of our candidates.
Though some people bleat that the Conservatives are out of touch, modern Britain is reflected in our party. This modernism now needs to be projected in our actions for communities the length and breadth of this country if we are to win the next election. I’m ready to work with any of the candidates to get on with that 2019 mandate to level up, and to tackle the cost of living crisis. Crucially, I’ll work with anyone to win the next General Election and keep Labour, who have failed Wales so badly, from inflicting the same damage on the rest of the UK.
This article first appeared in The Sunday Times
READ NEXT:
- The teenager about to attend one of the most prestigious schools in the world
- Gareth Bale makes instant impact on Los Angeles FC debut
- The hottest areas of Wales as country set to see 37+ temperatures
- 'It's a f****** shark' - man's words off the coast of Pembrokeshire
- Rail passengers warned not to travel unless 'absolutely essential'
